RED-WINGED BLACK-BIRD, 175 



and sometimes warbling tones, which become at length 

 somewhat agreeable to the ear ; and instances are said to 

 have occurred of their acquiring the power of articula- 

 ting several words pretty distinctly. 



The flesh of this bird is but little esteemed, being dark 

 and tough like that of the Starling ; yet in some of the 

 markets of the United States they are at times exposed 

 for sale. 



The male Red-winged Troopial is from 8J to 10 inches in length : 

 of a glossy black, with the exception of the lesser wing-coverts, in 

 which the lower rows of feathers are of a reddish cream-color, the 

 rest of a bright scarlet. Legs and bill black. Irids hazel. Tongue 

 nearly as long as the bill, slender, and torn at the end. 



The female is from 8 to 9 inches long. Throat and below thickly 

 streaked with black and whitish, or cream color; under the throat 

 sometimes pale reddish. Above black, the feathers edged with pale 

 brown, white, or bay. Young 7?iflZe, black, the shoulder of the wing 

 the color of red lead, fading at the edges into buff yellow. Above, 

 with the feathers edged with brownish ferruginous and brownish 

 white, except the rump, in which the feathers are faintly edged with 

 cinereous ; over the eye-brows a pale line. Beneath, from the chin 

 downwards, black, the feathers edged with greyish white. 



Note. The size and markings of tliis bird vary in so extraordina- 

 ry a degree, that, with Du Pratz, I should, from the inspection of a 

 few specimens, have been inclined to create a second species. The 

 old males are sometimes only 8.J inches in length, the largest 10. 

 The females likewise vary from 8 to 9 inches. In the young female 

 also the feathers are edged with ferruginous and whitish, and beneath 

 and around the base of the bill nearly yellow. Other females have 

 the edges of the feathers as described above. Some have the shoulder 

 of the wing almost as red as in the male, but the same feathers spot- 

 ted with dusky. As females of the same age, apparently, are without 

 this mark, I suppose it to be accidental. Taking into consideration, 

 then, the extreme differences in the size of either sex, the supposed 

 disparity of the pair vanishes. This occasional diminution of size 

 is probably, as in other birds, peculiar to the latest broods. 



